Sundays after Russert

On the morning after Tim Russert’s tragic death, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos was on the phone talking admiringly about his late colleague and the tough competition among Sunday morning talk-show hosts, when he recalled an old Looney Tunes cartoon about a wolf and a sheep dog.

Although the two were cordial while punching into work and during lunch breaks, the relationship abruptly changed once the whistle blew and the shift began. Russert was “fun and loved trading gossip,” Stephanopoulos said, but when the “clock hits Sunday morning, he's out there trying to beat you.”

Story Continued Below

And week after week, Russert beat everyone.

So now NBC is faced with the unenviable task of trying to replace someone who — judging from the heartfelt tributes from political and journalistic luminaries — appears irreplaceable. In addition to “Meet the Press” being the highest-rated Sunday public affairs show, Russert could also boast of being the longest-running host for television’s longest-running program.

“I can’t imagine them going outside NBC,” said Andrew Tyndall, an independent television analyst, who added that he considers the network’s news operation the strongest in television.

Tyndall said that if he were NBC News President Steve Capus, a short list for the position would include White House correspondent David Gregory, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell — both of whom have guest-hosted “Meet the Press” — as well as political director Chuck Todd and “Hardball” host Chris Matthews. Two dark-horse candidates could be “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough or perhaps former “Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw — that is, if he had any interest in returning to such a prominent role.

Each day, Gregory, Mitchell, Matthews and Scarborough fill slots on MSNBC, and Todd has been a fixture on NBC and MSNBC throughout the 2008 race. While all strong candidates, none has yet to dominate the competition as Russert did.

Against him, Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” and Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” all competed for second place.

During May sweeps, "Meet the Press," brought in an average of 4.13 million weekly viewers, which is 1.5 million ahead of "This Week,"—it's closest competitor most of this season—with "Face the Nation" a close third, and "Fox News Sunday" a distant fourth nationally. And each week, the NBC public relations team blasts out news releases that not only trumpet another ratings victory but also included oftentimes lopsided percentages.

See Also

The most recent release following a head-to-head battle: “On Sunday, the Russert-moderated program was No. 1, averaging 4.115 million total viewers, +55 percent more (1,465,000) than second place ABC's "This Week" 2.650 million, a +65 percent advantage (+1,620,000) over third place CBS' "Face the Nation" 2.495 million and a +195 percent lead (+2,719,000) over FOX News Sunday's 1.396 million. ‘Meet the Press’ has now placed first in total viewers for 89 consecutive weeks and 353 of the past 354 weeks (when everyone is at full coverage).”

Yes, that’s more than 6 1/2 years with just one loss.

But Russert didn’t inherit such a winning streak — he earned it. In fact, when Russert took over the job in 1991, “Meet the Press” was mired in third place, behind both “Face the Nation” and “This Week.”

Editor's Note: The ratings order of Meet the Press's competitors was incorrectly reported in this story and has been corrected.